Bar None

by Mark Malcolm

and hunkered down as it stared at Karyn. She moved her back hand to the concealed pocket holding the small caliber pistol and wondered if it would have any effect?

  “No, no, Indal. No fight here. We’re just good friends here for a drink and a meal. Isn’t that right Azor?” the dog-man said.

  “Yeah, yeah, Molon’s right. Just here for a good drink and a cold meal,” Azor misquoted, slowly waving a cautionary clawed hand at Karyn but never taking his eyes off the creature. The man identified as Azor looked exactly like the werewolf creature standing before her, but he had been the immaculately dressed, western bartender mere moments before. “It’s okay, Karyn, it’s still me. Let him touch the material of your PJs. It’ll help calm him down.”

  Karyn blinked at him twice. Surely he was insane. She spared a quick glanced over her shoulder at the blurry man sitting at her table. He still sat there calmly with his hands crossed, and she still couldn’t tell what his face looked like.

  “Yes, yes. That’s a good idea,” the dog-man agreed. “He likes you anyway. He might not know who you are right now, but I’m certain he knows your scent. It’ll work.”

  Karyn wasn’t so sure.

  “No, really. It’ll work,” the Azor-wolf assured.

  Grayson slowly scratched something on his slate and held it up. It’ll work.

  Slowly, Karyn inched forward, ready to dodge left or right or block, though she doubted if she could actually stop or survive one of those powerful blows.

  Jesse moaned and stirred slightly from his slumped position against the wall.

  The wolf focused on her, deepening its crouched stance.

  Karyn stopped moving.

  The creature snarled, drawing back its lips revealing long, sharp teeth, and barked.

  Karyn jumped at the sound but held her ground.

  The werewolf snuffled and then sniffed hard twice.

  Karyn continued her advance.

  Just as she came within arm’s length of the creature, it closed the distance faster than anything Karyn had ever seen and was on her, pinning her arms to her sides. She struggled, but she might as well have been held by steel bands for all the good it did her.

  The creature sniffed her hair twice as before and then moved its snout down the front of her pajamas, sniffing as it went. When the wolf’s face reached her midsection, it rubbed the side of its cheek against her stomach and let out a low gurgle. As the creature hunched over its tail began to wag just as a dog’s tail wags at the sight of its owner.

  Karyn had an idea.

  The wolf shifted its head to rub its other cheek, and Karyn raised her left hand gently rubbing the underside of the wolf’s jaw. The tail wagged more.

  “Oh, that’s good. That’s very good,” Azor said, holding his position.

  “Yes, yes, do that again. He likes that,” the dog-man said.

  As if it understood, the wolf positioned its face so Karyn could rub the jaw again. She did, and the tail wagging increased. Then the werewolf released her and she turned to dash away, but Jesse stood in her way.

  “If you run now, he’ll rip you to shreds,” Jesse said softly in her ear. “Treat him just as you would a pet dog at home, and he’ll change back.”

  Karyn nodded and slowly reached her hand toward the creature to scratch behind an ear. The creature sat before her just as a dog would, complete with his tongue lolling out. Karyn continued scratching and moved from behind the ear to a spot just above the animal’s sternum. A loud, rhythmic thumping began as the wolf rapped its rear paw hard on the floor. The scratching continued, and the wolf slumped to the floor to roll onto its back with its paws in the air, leg flailing.

  The fur under her fingers begin to writhe and shift as the creature arched its back in pleasure. Slowly, the fur receded, and the creature began to shrink in size. What had grown now shrank until a naked man lay on his back on the floor.

  Grayson dropped the blue robe onto the man to cover his modesty as he blinked and recovered himself.

  “Abba, Cathair needs your attention, please,” Azor said. His motion drew Karyn’s eyes away from the bewildered man. Now, Azor had on a white robe, and wings extended from his back just like Jesse.

  Karyn looked at Jesse, then back to Azor as he knelt next to the unconscious form of the bouncer.

  The man at Karyn’s table rose and crossed the short distance to kneel beside Azor. Karyn didn’t think he’d be able to do anything for the man given how hard he’d been hit, but she stepped aside to let him pass anyway.

  “Karyn, someday you’ll do greater things than this if you let your new faith grow and blossom,” he said without looking. “Jesse could do this too if he could rediscover his faith.”

  Jesse snorted and walked back to the table with his chess game.

  “He started it. Why not just let him die. I’d let him die. Serves him right,” Natasha said, smiling at Jesse as he sat down.

  “You already know that answer, but you’d see that too if you’d stop focusing on everyone else’s flaws,” the man said, laying a hand upon the wound and bowing his head.

  A moment later, Cathair groaned, rolled over and pressed up pressing on the floor trying to rise. Azor and the dog-man helped him up.

  As the man rose she looked where the wound had been but only saw new, pink flesh. Her mouth gaped as she starred at the man whose face she still couldn’t see.

  He took a menu from Grayson and handed it to her without a word before he helped the wizard to his feet.

  “I’m—I’m terribly sorry. I hope I didn’t cause you any problems,” the man said without a hint of intoxication.

  Karyn’s mouth hung open, unable to form the words of a reply.

  “I’m sorry, I’m Indalrion Tay, Chronomancer and sometimes wolf man. My friends call me Indal.” He extended a hand once again adorned with the silver bracelet.

  “Friends are something you’ll be in short supply of if you go around beating them to death all the time,” Azor said, shaking his head as he and the dog-man returned to their work.

  Karyn did not reach out to take the man’s hand.

  “It’s okay. I only change form when I use my temporal magic. I thought Cathair had gone into battle rage and was going to do you harm. Guess I hit him harder than necessary, but physical confrontation isn’t really my forte.”

  At that moment, the strangest creature Karyn had ever seen came through the kitchen doors. The girl couldn’t have been more than eleven or twelve years old, but it wasn’t her age that threw Karyn. Her skin was the color of newly mown grass, and she had four pairs of arms. In one hand, she held a tray of hot wings. In another hand, she held a small ramekin of what appeared to be blue cheese dressing. Another hand held a small plate of celery. Another hand held a glass of water, and still another hand clutched a fresh glass of chardonnay. The young, green girl headed toward the table Karyn had been sitting at and stopped halfway when she realized no one was there. Then she looked around, spotted Karyn, and smiled.

  “Oh, there you are. Changed your seat maybe?” She dashed across the bar with the food, oblivious to the action taking place.

  Karyn was puzzled—she hadn’t even seen a menu yet.

  “I took the liberty of viewing your future before my spell expired and ordered for you as I came in. I hope you don’t mind,” Indal said.

  Grayson helped Cathair into a chair by the door and went to get him something from the bar. Jesse and Natasha continued their chess game apparently oblivious, while the owner of the place motioned toward their table. Just then a green girl doing a Shiva the Destroyer impersonation arrived holding trays of food.

  The thought of food made Karyn’s stomach rumble again, but she wasn’t sure if she could eat until the man with the blurry face laid his other hand on her wrist again and everything seemed as though it would be just fine.

  “It will be just fine, Karyn,” the man said. “Weebles, you can put that at our table. We’ll be there shortly.”

  The man ambled back to their
table, and Karyn followed.

  “I don’t kick people out of the Bar None, though, sometimes people in the Bar None kick out other people. I don’t like that, but as I said earlier I don’t make your choices for you, I just lament or rejoice; the choices, you make yourself.”

  Karyn wasn’t sure she understood, but she followed the man to the table and sat back down. The food smelled incredible, as though she hadn’t eaten in a million years. A small loaf of bread sat on a miniature cutting board. Their waitress must have brought it out when she was at the bar.

  “Karyn, you will meet all these people, and more, on this new journey you’ve undertaken. The thing you’ve got to remember is that you look just as strange to them as they look to you,” he said, holding up his hands to indicate her sitting there in her fuzzy, footie pajamas.

  Karyn grew self-conscious once again about being out in public in her favorite pajamas that John had given her. Again her eyes grew moist as she recalled the passing of her husband and their final interaction.

  “Yes, Karyn, I know you’re wounded, that you’ve been hurt. They have been, too. You may not have questions at this moment, but you will. And you can come here anytime to ask those questions because I do have the answers. When you leave here, you’ll think it was a dream, but you can return anytime the same way. You may not recall just how that happened, but, over time and with practice, you’ll get the hang of it. Just remember, the name of this place isn’t really the name of this place, and it’s not just a name but an attitude all of my